CCIQ’s wage concessions welcome, but what about jobs?

Together Secretary Alex Scott has welcomed the CCIQ’s declaration that it will not pursue the idea of a wages freeze for the public sector, after a successful petition campaign by workers.

Mr Scott has accepted the offer of a meeting with David Goodwin from the CCIQ to detail how it proposes to reduce Queensland’s public expenditure by $1,317 million.

“It’s good that the CCIQ have backed away from the idea of a wages freeze but to reach their target figure they now have to explain the size of the massive job cuts across the public sector that would be necessary,” Mr Scott said.

“The CCIQ’s target would mean the loss of 13,170 jobs in Queensland in a single year, a massive kick in the guts for families across the state.

“By the 2013-2014 budget year, allowing for expected growth, remaining within that target would require even more cuts, for a staggering total of 19,430 jobs cut.

“That’s nearly 20,000 fewer people building a better Queensland.

“Combined with the 5,000 positions already lost under the voluntary separations program we would see a reduction in non-front line staff of 48% by 2012-13, and 64% by 2013/14.

“CCIQ have some serious explaining to do if they think that the loss of tens of thousands of jobs could possibly be good news for Queensland’s workers, their families and the people that rely on these services,” Mr Scott said.

‘When people don’t have full-time jobs, they can’t get home loans for houses, they can’t get car loans for cars. They don’t take holidays.’ – David Goodwin, CCIQ on ABC North Queensland, 15 February 2012